Thursday, 31 July 2014

Today I am showing you fences I saw when I was out with
my North Down and Ards U3A bird group around Dundrum Bay, County Down, Northern
Ireland. We saw quite a number of waders
in this area and then made out way to Castlewellan to see if we could see the
Red Kites.

Some of the members of my class with the back drop of
the Mountains of Mournes.

We scarred the skies around this area and saw a Buzzard
and we thought we saw 2 Red kites in the very far distance but we could not be
deffinate. We were just about to leave
when out of the blue a Red Kite fly right in front of us and all of us had very
good views of it. I only managed 1 shot.

You can access the video at

http://youtu.be/FeoSD_veS7I

If there is a black space below, click it and the video
will appear.

I hope you enjoyed coming along with us. Tomorrow I will show you reflections I found in this area.

I am linking this post with Tex's meme GOOD FENCES.Thank you for visiting today.

Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Recently I showed you the photographs of the 2 larger of
our gulls breeding on Copeland Island however today it is the turn of the
Common and Black headed Gull with their chicks.
There is a short video at the end of the post.

Common Gull

Black headed Gull

Apart from the 2 gulls mentioned in this post, there is an Arctic Tern at the end of the video.The video can be accessed at

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

While I was on the Copeland Island in June, I came
across 3 nearly fledged chick and also a Herring Gull being born. Today I will show you the photos I managed to
shot. Firstly, there are always 2 Ringed Plovers on the island but on the
Saturday I could only see one parent at a time, however on Sunday just before
the boat came to take us home, I went back and both parents were together so I
scarred the pebble beach and eventually spotted the newly fledged chick. I was delighted as I had never seen one
before.

Ringed Plover chick.

Can you see the chick? This shot above is fully zoomed in on my camera.

All the other photographs are cropped heavily!

There are a small number of Pied Wagtail that nest on
the island and I had seen some parents but from the kitchen window I saw a
young one so ran out and captured these photographs.

My next find was a newly fledged Oystercatcher which I
saw several times however only managed to capture in a few still and video once (at
end of the shots in this post), There are
quite a number of pairs of Oystercatchers nest on the island and these first
shots are of this adult who is not the parent of the chick. They were taken in a different area of the
island and I think she was trying to protect her nest.

Oystercatcher chick.

Lastly I saw one of the Herring Gull chicks being born.

You will see that on the video.

I have a short video of the Oystercatcher and chick and a Herring Gull being born which can be accessed at

http://youtu.be/nkr8wpg0-kg

If there is a black space below, click it and the video
will appear.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these “young ones” as much as I did finding and photographing them.

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About Me

I have retired from a medical background, as well as teaching a 3 year City and Guilds; and also running a Bed and Breakfast. I have taken up bird watching later in life however I became very enthusiastic from the beginning and was greatly encouraged by other bird watchers. For the past 9 years I have led a bird group in my town and have become a guest speaker on cruise ships talking about Birds around the world. I have travelled quite a bit, in particular to Australia where one of my daughters lives. I have now as many birding friends there as at home in Northern Ireland. I love Nature and being able to share that with others of like mind. I also like photography and do my best to photograph birds although I seem to be also very eclectic in what I photograph and blog these days.
I live in Northern Ireland which is part of the UK and it is a beautiful place to live however I love travelling to see places and birds that I have never seen before.